whom Scipio, he thought, had treated too tenderly. In 150 he was one of an
embassy sent to Carthage, and came back filled with alarm at the prosperity
of the city. It is said that whatever was the subject on which he was asked
for his opinion in the senate, he always ended his speech with '_ceterum
censeo delendam esse Carthaginem_' P. Scipio Nasica, the son-in-law of
Africanus, and the representative of his policy, always shouted out the
opposite opinion, thinking that the fear of Carthage had a salutary effect
on the Roman populace at large. But the ideas of Cato prevailed, and a
cruel policy, carried out with needless brutality, led to the extinction of
Rome's greatest rival. Cato did not live to see the conclusion of the war;
he died in 149, at the age of 84 or 85 years, having retained his mental
and physical vigor to the last. He had two sons, one by his first wife, and
one by his second wife, born when Cato was 80 years of age. The elder son,
to whom many of Cato's works were addressed, died as praetor-elect, before
his father[47]. The other was grandfather of Cato Uticensis.

The literary activity of the old censor was great, though his leisure was
small.[48] In Cicero's time a collection of 150 speeches was still extant.
The titles of about 90 are still known to us, and of some we possess a few
fragments. Cato's greatest work, however, was his _Origines_, the first
real historical work written in Latin. His predecessors had been merely
compilers of chronicles. The work was founded on laborious investigations,
and comprised the history of Rome from the earliest times perhaps down to
150 B.C.[49], as well as notices of the history of other important Italian
states. Further, Cato wrote of Agriculture, to which he was
enthusiastically devoted. We still have his _De Re Rustica_, a collection
of maxims loosely strung together. He also composed works on law; a sort of
educational encyclopaedia for his son; and a collection of witty sayings,
Αποφθεγματα, drawn from Greek as well as from Roman sources.